NGO runs orphanage for HIV+, sans caretaker in Pune

A centre for HIV+ orphans in Kothrud has had no caretaker for the last one year. Run by a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Asha Samajik Pratishthan (ASP), the centre has 12 orphans aged between 8 and 14 years, housed on the top floor of a rented bungalow in Ganesh Kripa Society in Kothrud.

Given the lack of direct supervision, the children — six boys and six girls — are left to their own devices. Residents of the area have complained of a distinct lack of care and attention being given to the children by the ASP.

According to a resident of the area, Deepa Mirge, due to the lack of daily supervision, the children often go without good quality food for days on end. “Often they have no vegetables to eat. At such times, my friends and I have gone and given vegetables to their cook,” she said.

Mirge said many of the children do not have enough books for school. “I know this because the children visit my neighbours, who are retired teachers and teach them,” Mirge said.

Dr Santosh Jaganade, who visited the children on Monday morning said he was shocked.

Dr Jaganade said, “I was shocked to see the children were eating a stale vegetable curry, which actually had some fungus in it. How can a centre for children not have a caretaker? It is shocking.”
The children have articulated their feelings through small notes (the notes are in the possession of DNA). One child has explicitly stated how, when a citizen donated a box of chocolates, they were not given any by the NGO’s founder trustee, Asha Shinde.

Likewise, the child mentioned how when fruits were donated to the centre, Shinde gave the children only half an apple each. When DNA visited the centre on Monday afternoon, it was clear the children were alone.

However, Asha Shinde and her son, Suparn, both founder trustees of ASP, soon reached the centre. The mother-son duo readily acknowledged  that they had no caretaker. Shinde, a retired professor from a Loni Kalbhor college said, “We have been looking for a caretaker for a long time, but have not found one. We have had several caretakers in the past, but they do not last.”

According to her son, Suparn, the centre was started at their erstwhile Dhankavdi apartment in December 2006 and housed just two children. Later, the centre, registered with the charity commissioner (F 21788/Pune/2007), was expanded to Wakad before being housed in Kothrud in the last 2 years.

Suparn said ASP was spending close to Rs25,000 every month to run the centre. He said, “My mother and I started the NGO to give a new lease of life to HIV+ orphans, who did not find a place in regular orphanages. We are funded by well-wishers, friends and politicians. I agree that our biggest challenge is to get a full-time caretaker, but we are trying our best to provide the children a good life.”

The three-room apartment was shabby. The rooms did not look well-ventilated and the bunk beds were dirty. The kitchen looked shabby with some daal and chapatis in two containers near the gas stove.

According to Suparn, a lady cook and a lady sweeper look after the apartment. “We have bunk beds for all the children and they go the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) school in Shastrinagar,” he said.

Suparn said the children, many of whom were taking anti-retroviral therapy (ART), are taken to the Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial (YCM) Hospital in Pimpri once a month for a check-up. “The children have been trained to take their own medication,” Suparn said.